Control Your Self, Week 3

Tim Rivers | March 3, 2024

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Transcription

What's up everybody? Come on. Give Jesus some praise in this place. That was mild. Somebody give Jesus some praise in this place. Anybody love the Lord? Yes. Has he been good to you? They shout yes.

Y'all had me nervous for a second. My goodness, I thought y'all had a bad week. God is good. And all the time the Old Saints used to say, keep on keeping on is keep on keeping. When you don't know what to do, do what you know to do.

As y'all can tell, I'm ready to get in this word, but before we do, if this is your first time here at Embassy City Church, we want to say Welcome to Embassy City Church. We are so delighted that you are here for those that are watching online or are in the overflow, thank you so much for joining us. We pray that you are blessed here. We pray that you feel loved here and you are loved here. You are loved here, and we want to walk with you through your journey with the Lord. This is a family. The body of Christ is a family. That's why the Bible, when it talks about the church, it talks about us as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. So you don't have to walk this road alone. You do not have to be a Christian by yourself. You got brothers and sisters that you can depend on, and let me encourage you, if you feel lonely, don't run out of here as soon as dismissal is and people are like, I can't find nobody to hang out with the church because you're trying to beat everybody to the parking lot.

Hang around, get to know somebody. Get to know your brothers and sisters. Amen. If you have your Bibles, let's go to Galatians chapter five. I want to get in this word. We are going to do a lot of scripture reading,

Which is A okay, right? But we're going to go back to Galatians chapter five, which is what we started with. We are in the third week of a series that we have named Control Your Self. And we've been talking about the self and we've been talking about, we're moving now into how you control yourself and we're going to get into this word, but before we do, let me add this caveat. In this series, I gave y'all the warning on the first week that it is going to be a challenging series. It's going to be a series that's rated G four growth. And inevitably what happens in a series like this where we're dealing with intimate details of the self of the heart, oftentimes people can walk away and feel a sense of condemnation. Man, pastor was specific today. A few of y'all have come up to me after service and said, well, I'm involved in this and I'm trying to figure out, and I just want you to be okay with that because what you're feeling, if you are a regenerated believer, what you're feeling is not condemnation. It's conviction. And we don't talk a lot about conviction, but one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit, what he does in our lives is he convicts us through this word. And so what I would encourage you to do is if you've heard anything in the last two weeks that is pricking you in your heart, making you stop and think and consider lead into that and just say, holy Spirit, what are you trying to say to me? Because there may be some things in your life that are not inherently sin, but they're not good for you. And the Holy Spirit through the word is convicting you. Stop doing that or start doing this. So lean into what the Holy Spirit is telling you. And for some of us that have grown up maybe in an environment where we have heard the pastor give us specific instructions on how to live our lives, anybody else grow up in an environment where it's like some of y'all know what I'm talking about. You can't go to Bennigans because it has a bar in it. Y'all think I'm joking, I'm serious. And if we're not careful, we can desire to have a person give us specific instructions when that's the job of the Holy Spirit.

We are going to go into the word of God and the word of God is going to give us instructions. And then there are some things that the word of God doesn't give specificity on because the Holy Spirit will navigate in each individual's lives, how you move through certain things, lean into that, lean into that. Listen to the Holy Spirit. That's what we're going to talk about today. All right? Alright, so if you have your Bibles, Galatians chapter five, verse number 16, we're going to read down through verse number 25. But I say walk by the Spirit. Somebody say, walk, walk, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Ooh, that's a promise, isn't it? If you walk by the spirit, you will not

Gratify the desires of the flesh for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Amen to that. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evidence, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I've warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things. There is no law and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with hiss passions and desires. If we live by the spirit, let us also keep in stepped with the spirit. I was walking the other day with our children, was going to go get a haircut and they were walking with me and when we got to go across the street, they were trailing behind me and I said, Hey,

Stayed right beside me. Stay in step with me across the street. And the reason why I did that is because if there's any danger or harm that would come, I can move in. If they stay in step with me, I can guard them. But if they walk in front of me or behind me, I got to read the scripture so I can get in this word. Let us not become conceited provoking one another, envying one another. What does it mean? What does he mean here? If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Let us not become conceited. Don't think that you can walk by yourself. Alright, let's go to Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six, verse number one through four, Romans six, one through four. What shall we say then are we to continue in sin that Grace May abound by no means how died to sin still live in it. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore with them by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we might walk. Somebody say, walk, walk, walk in newness of life. One more passage, Romans chapter eight,

Verse number one, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and force sin, he condemning in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk

Not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot. For those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You somebody say me, me, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness and somebody say Amen. Amen. I want to preach for just a little while on this title. Walk this way, walk this way. Look at your neighbor, say, neighbor, this is our third week.

I don't know what you're going through. But you can walk. Walk this way, this way. Look at your other neighbor and say, neighbor, neighbor, ditto di. I didn't want to go through all that again,

Heaven. Father, we thank you so much for your grace and your mercy. Thank you for allowing us to be in your house. I pray that in the next few moments, your presence is already here. In the next few moments, give us ears to hear a heart, to receive a mind, to understand what the spirit would say to us. Help us to walk out of here different than the way we walked in. Do what only you can do. Teach us by your word. We give your name, the praise, the glory and the honor because you are worthy of it in Jesus' name. And everybody say Amen. Walk this way. Let me really quickly do kind of a recap to bring us up to speed. If you miss the first couple of weeks, the first week we talked about the progression in our lives that leads us to sin.

And the title of that message was The struggle is real. And what we talked about from James is James taught us that what leads us to sin is first, it begins with a desire. And oftentimes that desire is a natural desires, not evil per se, but that desire is manipulated by the enemy and causes a temptation. Now a temptation we define as an invitation to satisfy your desire outside of the boundaries that God has set. And we have several examples of that. If a temptation is not dealt with, if you're not running away from the temptation, don't have a conversation with the temptation. What does the Bible say about fornication? Flee fornication. Also the smallest sin in the Bible. Some of y'all going to kiss on the way home, flee fornication. Wow, that was a dad joke. If you don't deal with the temptation, there is conception, which is when sin impregnates you. And once sin impregnates you, then you have consequences. It reveals itself in your members and what you do. So that was the first week. Then the second week our title was There's a way out and we talked about how every single person will deal with temptations. There's not a single person that does not deal with temptations. And the Bible says that the temptations that come in our lives are common to man. In other words, you are not by yourself getting tempted.

Every one of us deal with temptations and we have a tendency to think that ain't nobody dealing with this one, someone is dealing with that one, and they may be sitting on the same row as you, but we have hope because with every temptation, the Bible says that God has provided for us a way of escape. And we looked at this word escape in the Greek and what it means is the exit or the way out or to move out. And so we know that in every temptation that we face, God has provided for us a way out. Did anybody pay attention this week to your way out? I know y'all had temptations hopefully this week as you were going through a week and you were getting ready to yell at that person that you took the way out and just prayed for 'em. I had to take the way of escape. A few times this week, God has provided a way of escape. But today I want to talk about walk this way because we can talk about temptation and we can talk about the escape, but the question is, what causes us to choose the way of escape rather than the way of self? What is it that we can develop in our Christian walk that helps us choose righteousness rather than unrighteousness? Because the temptation is always going to be there. The question is which way are you going to walk?

So I want to begin by asking you this question, and it's a very seemingly obvious question, but I don't think a lot of believers ask themselves this question. Why are you a Christian? Why are you a Christian? Why have you given your life to Christ? Now, for some of us who've been in church for all of our lives, it is just a way of life. I mean, I don't know anything else. I was born saved under the pew. You know what I mean? I was speaking in tongues at three. What are we talking about? They thought it was babbling. It was stammering lips in another tongue.

If you've been in church a long time, this is an even more difficult question to answer. But all of us at some point as Christians have to answer the question, why am I a Christian? Now, the meaning of being a Christian has developed over the ages in the very beginning. The first time a Christian is actually ever mentioned is in Acts chapter 11, and they used this word to describe the people who were following the teachings of Christ. And over the centuries, the term has developed in meaning. But today in modern Christianity, anyone who is a Christian is defined as someone who has professed faith in Christ. And in some denominations it's anyone who has had a believer's baptism. But there are many reasons why people become Christians. All of us that are saved. There is a reason why you professed faith in Christ. Now for some it's to escape hell. Now lemme say this, some of us were raised in a church where they're scared the hell out of you. Literally, it is been a long time since I actually heard a real strong message on hell. But I remember a story of a man who was preaching about hell and before he started the sermon, he had the staff members turn the heat up in the room.

As he preached it was getting hotter and hotter. And he said, can't you feel the heat, the flames? I knew a guy that was actually there. He said the altar call was packed. Anybody remember? Anybody read Frank Pereti? You read that book and if you haven't read it, go read it. I promise you, you will stay up tonight praying, right? This darkness left behind. Ain't nobody trying to get left behind. So a lot of people became Christians. Why? Because I don't want to go to the bad place. The problem though is if you view your Christian life as just wanting to escape, hell, you'll view God as somebody who's just waiting to crack you over the head. If you view your Christian life through the lens of God is sending me to hell if I don't do right, you'll live your life looking as God looking at God as a harsh task matter rather than a loving father. And there's a lot of people that sit in church today that are scared Christians, hoping they don't mess up, right? Some people become Christians because they want to escape poverty. Maybe you came to the Lord because you entered a church in an environment where the preacher said that, listen, if you become a Christian, you will be rich.

I knew when I was growing up, there was a guy, this is the time when we used to have prayer meetings on Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Bible study, Friday night, youth service, Saturday night prayer, Sunday morning pre-service, prayer, Sunday morning Bible study, Sunday morning worship, Sunday afternoon, choir rehearsal, Sunday afternoon pre-service, prayer, and then service Sunday night speaking of Sunday night. Tonight we have worship night, be here. It's going to be great. And I remember this individual that he would pray and he would say, God, give me money, money, money, money, money, money, money. He would say that over and over God, you mean money, money, money, money, money. And apparently it worked. He was rich. But the truth is just because you became a Christian doesn't guarantee you that you're going to be rich and somebody say amen. It doesn't mean that you can't be rich. Abraham was rich. David was rich. There are many people that are rich and Christian, but just because you're Christian, it doesn't guarantee you monetary wealth. How many know that when you become a Christian you will be blessed, but blessed doesn't necessarily mean rich. You can be rich and not blessed.

The Bible promises you that you will be blessed. But some people they come to faith thinking that if I come to faith, I will become rich. And the problem with that is as long as they don't have money, their faith wanes. We've all met this person, right? When they have money, they'll peace shouting, but when they don't, they don't even come to church because their faith is based on monetary value. Some people become a Christian because they want to be healed. We see this example with Jesus when Jesus was coming and he was healing the sick and he was raising the dead and he was teaching, the Bible tells us that right after he fed the 5,000, that they followed him across the sea of Galilee and they went to see him not because of who he was, but because of what he did for them. And many people will come to God right after a crisis in their life. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Sometimes crisis wakes you up to the fact that Jesus is available. But some people just come to Jesus because they want something from him. They want a healing, they want this or that. And if the only reason that you follow Jesus is because you expect the healing, you'll be sorely disappointed when you don't get it.

Well, I asked God to heal me and he hasn't healed me, so I'm out. I asked God to give me a husband and he ain't come. So I'm out. I'm going to leave that one alone. Lord, why I was about to go there. Some people become Christians because they're trying to escape reality. We see this happening a lot right now, right? This happens when people are so sick of their mundane life. They want another experience and so they trade one high for another. It is the same spirit, it's just a different partner.

And people will join a because they want to experience a high. And this happens in super hyperspiritual environments where all we do is chase an experience and every Sunday is judged on how ethereal it was. But how many people become Christians because they're just chasing an experience? Here's the thing, the problem with most presentations of the gospel is that they ignore the bold print. Most presentations of the gospel in modern Christianity are like a sales pitch for a pyramid scheme. If you follow Jesus, then within six months you'll start making a hundred K. And if you get four or five people to come into the faith, then God will increase your retirement fund by 30%. Then you'll get more jewels in a bigger house. And so people sometimes come into the church thinking, I got to first of all buy it and then I got to sell it and then see what happens in my life. But the most obvious thing in the Bible that we see is when Jesus said, in this life you'll have trouble. Listen, that's not the greatest selling scheme right? In this life you'll have trouble. Jesus said, if you are going to follow me, you have to deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. That is not the greatest sales pitch. Peter said it like this, do not be surprised at the fiery trials which will

Try you as though some strange thing happens. Surprise, surprise, I'm in a trial, Peter said, do not be shocked. It's coming. In fact, can I say it like this, that the real struggle begins as soon as you say yes to Jesus? I'm going to keep it real with y'all. The real struggle begins after you say yes to Jesus. Why? Because before you met Jesus, you were dead in your sins and trespasses and you just followed whatever you wanted to do. You were satisfying the flesh here. You slept with whoever you wanted to sleep with. You gossiped about whoever you wanted to gossip about. You were lifted up in pride. You were doing your little drugs or big drugs. You were lying, you were cheating. He didn't even think nothing about it. Pardon every But when you became a believer, no one had to tell you anything. You start feeling uncomfortable. Why? Because when you receive the Holy Spirit, you are made aware of boundaries. Because before Jesus, you lived your life without boundaries. We lived our lives without boundaries. But when we introduced to God, God begins to work on your heart through conviction and he makes you aware of boundaries. How do we know this? Paul said it in Romans chapter seven. He says, I would not even know what was wrong until the law told me. It's like driving down the highway with no speed limit. Under Audubon, you can go as fast as you want, but as soon as you see 60 miles an hour, you know start negotiating. I know the SPI limit is 60, but they don't pull you over below. Does anybody else negotiate in your mind how many people living in the flesh on the highway? But what ends up happening is you weren't responsible when you didn't know, but now that you know are responsible, self-control is not necessary. When you don't know, self-control is only necessary when you've been made aware that you have options. What happens is when you come to faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit comes into you, he goes, don't do that. Don't go there. Do that. Go there. And now that you're aware, you have a decision to make. Prior to Jesus, your boundaries for your sex life was, I'm going to have sex on the first date, but maybe the third or fourth. That's what the unregenerated person says, these are my boundaries. But when you get Jesus, your boundaries become you feel, I ain't got a ring. We ain't doing the thing

The Bible says, he who knows to do good and doesn't do it to him, it is sin. So when you're made aware of what's right and wrong, now you become responsible for which way you get to walk.

Hallelujah.

It's the knowledge of righteousness and unrighteousness that creates the conflict of Romans. Chapter seven, you were not in conflict before you met Jesus.

You just did whatever you had. Maybe social boundaries and intrinsic moral boundaries. You knew that murder was wrong. I'm not going to murder nobody. But when you meet Jesus, now your eyes are opened, your spirit becomes alive, and you are aware of righteousness and unrighteousness. But just because you're saved doesn't mean that you don't struggle. It doesn't mean that you don't still have a self to deal with. Paul makes it very clear that the Christian life is not static. And I think the modern presentation of the gospel is that it's a one-time thing. It's a one-time conversion experience and then the rest you just go living on life. And here's the problem with that. If you view Christianity or you'll walk with God as simply conversion, you will struggle for the remainder of your Christian walk. And the problem is a lot of preachers and churches will preach conversion but will not go on further. And here's what we know about what Jesus did. Jesus did not say, go and make converts.

When Jesus was gathered with his disciples, Matthew 28 19, he didn't say, Hey, go out there and get as many people to raise their hands as possible.

Right?

He did not say, Hey, go and just have a conversion experience and then move on to the next and then post your numbers at the end of the year. Oh Lord, I just got personal. Jesus said, go and make disciples. Conversion and discipleship are two different things, and unfortunately the church has been more interested in converse than we have in making disciples. But a true Christian is someone who is converted and then becomes a disciple. Now, what is a disciple? Somebody asked me, what is a disciple?

I'm glad you asked. A disciple is a student who adheres to and travels with a teacher. The biblical definition of a disciple is one who adheres to and travels with a teacher. And if you go back in biblical times, anyone who was discipled, they did not just hear, but they would walk with the teacher because the custom at that time as that much teaching was done through walking. Why? Because what the teacher was doing was just as important as what the teacher was saying. It wasn't enough for the student to be in the classroom hearing, but the student had to go out with the teacher to see what was taught being done.

And if we're not careful, we will listen and not do, but a true disciple is one who devotes themselves to learning from the teacher and walking with the teacher. That's why the Bible says that faith without works is dead. You can believe. But unless you do what you believe, we don't really know if you believe. So we got to walk this way. Now, it's interesting to me that when Paul writes in Galatians and Romans and there's a few more passages that when he says the antidote, the antithesis to living a selfish life, to living a life that is governed by the flesh to living a life where you just do whatever your flesh is wanting to do, the antithesis to that is to walk by the spirit or walk in the spirit. It's interesting because walking is a movement. Walking is getting you somewhere. So your life, your Christian life cannot be stagnant. It's not about just hearing the word of God and sitting still, but if you, you're truly going to find control for yourself. You have to begin to walk in the spirit. The unregenerated person walks or advances to please the self.

Because we lack self-control without the Holy Spirit. We just walk toward whatever is feeding our passions. But when we receive the Holy Spirit, now we are empowered to walk by the spirit. So let me quickly give you a couple points of how to walk by the spirit. If you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. Here's number one, how to walk in the spirit. Number one is

Listen, listen, when I think about our children, Zara, when you get to a certain age, it's hard to remember how you learned. It's very hard for me to recollect 30 plus years ago how a teacher taught me to read. And so when our children started to go to school, I was intrigued by how they were learning, how they were being discipled, and the thing that I noticed first and foremost when Zara went to kindergarten is that they didn't really teach her the alphabets. They just taught her how to listen because you'll emulate what you listen to.

That's why the Bible says he that has ears, let him hear what the spirit says to the church. The first way to walk in the spirit is to tune your ears, to listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling you. And I'm not just talking about your physical ears, I'm talking about the ears of your heart, your mind will and emotions. Here's what I can guarantee you, that when you become a Christian and you get filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will begin to talk to you through impressions, through other people, through the word, through dreams, through signs. The question is, are we listening? Are we listening to ourselves or are we listening to the spirit? Here's a perfect example. You're dealing with a temptation. Something says, don't do it. You can rationalize that away as just your emotions or you can accept the fact that the Holy Spirit is telling you don't do it. And as a believer, I choose to always recognize it as the Holy Spirit when I know it has to do with righteousness and unrighteousness. If the voice that I'm hearing is pointing me toward righteousness, it's the Holy Spirit. The question is are we listening to the Holy Spirit or are we listening to ourself? Because the self is always going to push you toward unrighteousness.

But the Holy Spirit will quicken you right as you're about to walk. When you're in a certain crowd, you start feeling uncomfortable. When you're listening to somebody gossiping and you feel like you got to hang up the phone, that's the Holy Spirit. The question is, are we listening? I want you to recognize this. Jesus at his baptism, he comes out of the water, the heavens open up and the Father declares, behold, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased, here you him. When Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tested and tempted by the devil, what does the devil do? The first thing he does is he attacks his identity. If Jesus did not listen to what the father was saying about him, he would've questioned his identity by what Satan was telling him. Eve did not given to eating the fruit because the devil made her. She gave it to the fruit because she listened to him. The first way that you get attacked is by your ears. What would've happened if eve distanced herself from the tree? She wouldn't have even heard the serpent. It is important to listen to the spirit because the spirit will tell you who you are and when you hear who you are, you will walk according to that identity

Because the enemy will try to make it selfish. If you eat this fruit, you will be as God's knowing good and evil. Did God actually say Satan uses the same strategy? He tries to get in your ear because if he can get through your ear, he can get into your actions. Number one, if you're going to walk into spirit, listen, how do you listen? You listen to the word. You listen Biblical teaching. You listen to those who already walk in the spirit. Listen, I hardly ever make a decision without running it by somebody that I know walks with Jesus. If there's a decision to be made that this is of impact, I always run it by my wife, friends that I know will walk with the spirit. Listen, here's number two, pray. Now, this is one where most people struggle because you're praying and you ain't hearing nothing. Now, some people they can be in a monologue for hours, but most people want a dialogue. If I'm talking, I want to hear you talk back. Amen. I was just testing y'all right there, but I love a dialogue. I like to talk and hear a little bit. The difficulty oftentimes with prayer is that we get so uncomfortable with the silence that it turns into a monologue about ourselves and then we don't take the time to listen.

Let me challenge you with this. When you pray, spend as much time listening as you do talking, so if you go to prayer for 15 minutes, spend 15 minutes talking to God and in 15 minutes listening for God because he will talk to you, well, how do I know He's going to talk to me? He'll talk to you through his word, physical word. He'll talk to you through impressions. He'll talk to you through somebody. The Holy Spirit will begin to move with you and the more you listen to more you will recognize it. Any parents in the house when you're in the park, there can be a thousand kids, but you know when it's your kid because your ears are attuned to that voice. The Bible says that my sheep know my voice and another they will not follow. The more you listen, the easier it is to discern this, ain't it fam pray, praise our way of communicating with God and God communicating with the reason why prayer is so important is because you're communicating with God. If you don't use prayer, you communicate with yourself and yourself will always lead you to unrighteousness. What should I do about this? I don't know. What do you want to do about it?

Anybody talk to themselves? Be careful. Prayer takes you out of the equation and puts God in it. That's how you walk in the spirit. Here's number three. These are very practical here. Number one is listen. Number two is pray. Number three is read. Lemme go back to Jesus.

When Jesus came out of the wilderness, actually let's go before this, before he gets into the wilderness, we know that he spent time reading the scriptures because he was familiar with him at the age of 12, and then he went into a period of learning and then he reappears, he's baptized, he hears the voice of the Father, and then the Bible says He's led by the spirit into the wilderness and while he's in the wilderness, when Satan comes to attack him, what's interesting is Jesus doesn't give a defense come on of his own making even though he could because he was the son of God. Instead, Jesus quotes scripture because Jesus, the son of God knew that the enemy has no power over the written powerful word of God. We get sometimes so hung up on the genealogy. I can't read the genealogy. He says,

But lemme tell you what the Bible does. When Paul was writing to Timothy, he says, the word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction. The word of God will give you the armor that you need and the attack defense weapon that you need to come against every temptation that tries to pull you in the wrong direction. When an enemy starts talking to you about being a loser and not having enough, you can go and say his quote scriptures like, I am a royal priesthood. I'm a peculiar people. When the enemy starts telling you that you're on the bottom, you can say, God has made me the head and not the tail. He's made me the lender and not the borrower. Whatever the enemy attacks you with, you got words from God to come up against him. My latter day shall be greater than my former days. Blessed is the man that walked not in a counselor and godly Lord, stand is in the way of sin, Lord, sin in the sin forth, but his delight is in the law of God and in his Lord does he meditate both day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of living water, which gives fortunes fruit in its season and his leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he touches.

I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I'll fear. No, we because God is with me when I'm hungry, he prepares the table before me and the presence of my enemy. He hides me in the cliff of the rock play that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Lift up your heads as though you gates and be you lifted up your everlasting Lord and the king of glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory, the Lord strong and mighty. The Lord may and battle somebody. You just got to give your word. There is nothing that the enemy has against the word of God for gospel love. The world that he gave is only but God and Son who served believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus wept. That's all The sun is school kids right there. Memorize the scripture. Jesus wept. Where's my candy? But the way you walk in the spirit is you got to get into the word. Satan has no defense against the word of God. Nothing. Nothing.

Here's number four. What do you mean do? Do what the spirit is telling you to do.

The Bible says that self-control is a fruit of the spirit. You cannot produce self-control by yourself and the modern interpretation of self-control is you mustering the courage and the strength and the ability to beat yourself in the submission. But what studies will also tell you is that you will deal with fatigue of trying to do it yourself until ultimately you can't do it anymore. Self-control is not about you mustering up the courage to control yourself. It's the ability to relinquish control of yourself to the Holy Spirit. Self-control, the biblical definition of self-control is to allow the Holy Spirit to control yourself. It's you developing the discipline of simply walking in the spirit because that walk in the spirit shall not.

So when I do what I don't want to do, it is because I'm not walking this way. Every time I sin, I ignore what the Holy Spirit is telling me. Got quiet every time as a believer that I choose myself and willfully sin. It's because I ignored what the Holy Spirit was trying to tell me. Self-control is the same as self-discipline and the word discipline and the word disciple have the same root, which is to learn. When you become a disciple, you have just committed yourself to learning self-control is you committing yourself to learning from the Holy Spirit, which way to walk. Ultimately, our controlling ourselves is about being controlled by Christ when the level of Christ controls us. You can read this in Second Corinthians chapter five 14. When we embrace the truth that he is our sovereign and God has left nothing outside of his control, Hebrews two eight, we can bask into freedom that we need not muster our own strength to exercise self-control, but we can find strength in the strength of another and his name is Jesus.

In the person of Jesus, the grace of God has appeared training us not just to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, but to live self-control upright and godly lives in the present age. Christian self-control is not finally about bringing our bodily passions under our own control. It ain't going to work. You done tried it. I ain't never going to do that again. Then the next day you forgot that you promised yourself you weren't going to go there. Alright, there's one last time. I'll start over on Monday. Anybody start over on Monday? Ain't no sense going to the gym on Wednesday. I mean the weekend is just a couple days away. I'll start on Monday. Then you miss your alarm clock on Monday. Well, I guess I'll start next Monday. You can't control yourself. You got to relinquish control of yourself to the Holy Spirit by walking in the spirit because self-control is a gift produced in and through us by God's spirit. Christians can and should be the people on the planet most hopeful about growing in self-control. When people that don't have the Holy Spirit talk about self-discipline or self-control, they're talking about human effort and power

And we know that human effort and power only leads you to gratify the flesh. So what do you do with a person that does not have the Holy Spirit but is self-discipline? Generally, they deal with a lot of pride in the fact that they control themselves, but I promise you there are other issues. They might be muscular, but they got other issues. Just because you're muscular don't mean you got issues just in case somebody out their life you can play. Bro, why are we teaching this? Because as a Christian, it's not just about conversion. It's about you growing in sanctification and in your walk with Christ. I would be remiss if I taught you sermons that just made you feel good. If I'm really going to help you grow in your walk with Christ, I got to make you aware of some things that the scripture teaches us, and by this time I am going to stay in this book. But the way to control yourself is to walk in the spirit.

And for many of us, when we hear that term, we think that it's like you're not even walking on the ground. I used to think when people walked in the spirit, they have that look about 'em and you're like, oh Lord, whatever it is in my life, got to pray that you forgive me right now before they walk up, but it got to be that weird. Are you listening? Are you praying? Are you in your word?

And are you doing? That's how you walk in the spirit. The way you walk in the spirit is you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to righteousness unrighteousness yourself. Your unregenerated self will only lead you to death and destruction. I'm urging you. Walk this way, walk this way this week when you come to a crossroads between choosing righteousness unrighteousness yourself or what the Lord is telling you, I pray that you walk this way, walk the way of the Holy Spirit, listen to what he has to say. He's in your heart for a reason so he can Jesus. Take the wheel. WWJD, we got to bring that back. Follow this way. Amen. And we follow. We're so grateful, so thankful to be in your house. I pray, Lord God, that as we consider your word and we ponder the scriptures and we pray and we listen, and we do that, we would make this a lifestyle, that walking in the spirit becomes a lifestyle for us, that we listen, that our ears are tuned to hearing from you and that we may do what you tell us to do. We're so grateful. We're so thankful for your presence. In Jesus name and everybody say amen.